First United Methodist Church; Orange, Texas

First United Methodist Church
502 Sixth Street; Orange, TX 77630

Recovery Efforts After Hurricane Ike

January 2009

Status As Of Jan 11th

Restoration Work on Church Facilities - Additional pictures

Dear fellow FUMC members,

Your committee working on Hurricane Ike restoration has been meeting with contractors and adjustors in an effort to put the church property back together. We retained a reputable contractor to remediate and clean the property immediately after the storm. We thought the emergency services part of the process was complete and were moving toward plans for putting the buildings back in working order. You've no doubt heard the expression, "one foot forward, two steps back." Now we've learned that all of the buildings - chapel, fellowship hall, and Malloy, and perhaps the sanctuary - still suffer from excessive moisture levels due to water which came down through the walls, as well as the flooding that the buildings sustained.

We are now facing additional drying and tearing out before we can move forward with rebuilding. We expect to start within the week with these tasks. The time estimate for both the additional remediation and the reconstruction is four to six months. Obviously this means that we will be relying on our new Family Life Center for almost all church activities during this period. While this is not the news we wished for, we all want the church to be properly restored to its former condition, or to a better condition.

Please be patient while we work through this process. Every church member wants the entire facility back at the earliest moment, but we want it back in the best possible condition. Please pray with us and for us as we continue to make important decisions for the continuance of God's work through this church's beautiful buildings.

October 2008

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